Watermarking yes/no? || new method to gain?

just a quick question, sounds kind of stupid, but It's been hitting me lately.

Does watermarking your original content decrease/increase user engagement?
-for example once I watermarked a photo and realized my engagement was not as high.
Next day I posted a watermarked photo and engagement was higher than usual.

I know that quality of the content also plays it's role, but in general, have any of you guys noticed regular patterns or trends when posting with watermarks?

PS. Watermarking does have its upsides, I recently posted original content with watermark, on the topic of the trending burger king black whopper with the (burgerking) hashtag included. Within 10-20 min, other users started reposting my pic and I started gaining followers from their reposts. I urge you guys to try posting original content (WITH watermark) about trending topics because it's an easy way to gain if the quality of the content is good enough. Plus it feels good

I'm curious about this too... Do you watermark your logo or your IG handle? Watermarking the IG handle makes sense but I see people watermarking there logo, both might be helpful. Handle so they can search u and the logo for brand recognition.

There are some youtube vids on how to watermark a bunch of photos at once with photoshop.

what do you mean by logo? As in a symbol? and as in handle do you just mean posting a pic with an at symbol followed by your username? From the looks of your question you may want to look at an account called daaamncomedy because they watermark with both brand and name it's pretty cool and I think it's bringing their account quite the traffic since they hit the millions. I know how to water mark with just username but with brands you can just use the juxtaposer app

I think whats good about watermarking is that if your original post gets copied:
1. the credit is there
2. Thus the copier doesnt have to credit the owner (Satisfies both parties)
3. Their followers may want to go back and check out the original poster and thus gaining followers.

From what Ive been seeing it's a win-win

The only thing that struck me was that when I made my watermark smaller I started getting more likes, is their something about a big flashy watermark that may make followers stray away?

From my perspective, when i see an image that is watermarked i think to myself "this person will most likely be quite happy with me sharing this image on my own site/social accounts.

The very reason i watermark my original content is because i know for sure it will be copied and placed elsewhere. Some will cover the watermark with their own but there's not a lot you can do about that.

As for the size - i make sure that my watermark is on the small side but clearly readable, no shadows, outlines or anything like that. Just a clean looking text. A logo type watermark can work well if you can make it noticeable while not taking anything away from the actual image. Which i find hard to do, so i rarely use a logo.

I think whats good about watermarking is that if your original post gets copied:
1. the credit is there
2. Thus the copier doesnt have to credit the owner (Satisfies both parties)
3. Their followers may want to go back and check out the original poster and thus gaining followers.

From what Ive been seeing it's a win-win

The only thing that struck me was that when I made my watermark smaller I started getting more likes, is their something about a big flashy watermark that may make followers stray away?

Watermarking your handle is great because if big accounts repost your picture without tagging you, you'll still get followers. I've had celebs repost and had over 500 follows from it. However I should mention that if the graphic isn't actually yours (you didn't take it) and the owner sees your watermark on it, they could possibly file a copyright report... and these lead to account deletion. Just a heads up.

What about watermarking photos that aren't yours? i.e. images scraped off the internet? I've seen other accounts do this, I wont be saying it's my copyright or anything and if anyone has an issue I will just take it down.

In regards to destroying the content, that's why I think it's important to position the watermark where it won't obstruct the image, which may involve more manual work than batch processing.

Watermark works extremely well for other social networks like Tumblr, since is easy to still images, but on Instagram, non-geek people don't even know how to save the images, and just a very few use apps of repost.

May it work, may be better than no watermark, but the impact wouldn't do the same as spread a watermark image on google.

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The very reason i watermark my original content is because i know for sure it will be copied and placed elsewhere. Some will cover the watermark with their own but there's not a lot you can do about that.

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There is something you can do if your original content is copied & placed elsewhere [with or without a watermark]

For those of you posting original content and watermarking it WITH the expectation of having it reposted & are OK with it being reposted, you can still do this if someone removes / changes your watermark.

For those of you posting original content and you do not want others to repost it, you can have it removed.

As the creator of original content, you are the copyright owner.
One of the rights granted to copyright owners is the exclusive right to publicly display your own content. This means that other users can not post your work without your permission. [It doesn't matter if they give you credit, keep your watermark on the image or anything else*]

You can only do this IF you own the original content and the rights to use all of the elements you used to create your work. [If you 'edit' another person's photo and didn't have permission to use their photo or edit it - YOU CAN NOT do this.]

If someone else posts your original content to their social media account, you can file a DMCA Takedown request with the service provider. [You can also sue them if you have an attorney - but most of the time a takedown is OK]. Use google to search for "<servicename> DMCA" [For example Instagram DMCA]. You fill out the form. It basically states you are the copyright owner and didn't give permission to the other person to post your original content, you provide a link to their post, your content and information. Your content doesn't have to be on the same service, you don't even need an account on that service and in some instances, if you've remove the work from all of your website, you can explain that you've 'unpublished your work' however are willing to email a copy to the service provider if required to show it is your work.

The service provider will immediately remove the content from the other account. In most cases if the same account is served with multiple DMCA notices within a period of time, their account will be suspended.

DO NOT go through this process if you are not the content owner and do not own [or have the rights to use] 100% of the elements in your photo/art/post. The form itself is a legal requirement and there are criminal penalties for filing it under false circumstances. The person whose work is removed can file a counter notice to your claim, however their doing so holds the same penalties.

While all of this is defined specifically in the US, if the service provider the work is being reposted on is located within the US [twitter, IG etc] the infringement is occurring in the US and thus subject to US law [you don't need to live in the US to file the DMCA claim if the service provider is a US company]. If your work is posted to a major blog platform, you can do the same thing. If you work is posted to someone's website and you located it via google, you can file a DMCA with google to have the content removed from their search engine.

On the DMCA forms, there's a place for you to put a link to your content. It doesn't have to be on the same service as the person who copied your photo. If you have your content on your own website, you should always use those links. [For example, if someone posts your work on IG, when you file the IG DMCA, you provide a link to the copied work on the IG servers, but in the section where you post a link to your work - you can use a link the work on your own website].

Some companies [not all] send a record of the DMCA takedown notice to a [google indexed] database. Google maintains its own database of takedown requests AND sends the notice to this other indexed database. If you use a link to your own website when reporting the account posting your work, you may end up generating backlinks to your site [from VERY REPUTABLE sources] if the DMCA notice is filed on one of these databases. [The reported site doesn't benefit from this and can be negatively impacted].

It's understandable that in some cases many of you feel there is a benefit when others repost your original content. As the copyright owner of that content - it's totally up to you to decide. If it benefits you - great, let others repost. If the person reposting your work removes or covers up your watermark - you can decide to file a DMCA against those accounts only. [This removes the image from the account that posted it without your watermark - so don't repost it from them. ].

Even if you file a DMCA Takedown to have your work removed from another person's account - YOU STILL have the right to sue them [for license fees and additional damages if you watermarked the image and the watermark was removed] for the time in which your work was available on their account. You have up to two years to file a civil suit against the person that infringed on your rights.

You DO NOT need to watermark your images in order to assert your rights as the copyright owner. A watermark is only there as a 'reminder' to others that the work is protected by US copyright law. For those of you that are OK with other posting your work, the watermark serves to identify you as the source/owner of the work.

*There's a few exceptions where someone would have a legal right to use your work without requesting permission first. This is highly unlikely [especially when posting to social media accounts]. Most people misunderstand the legal definitions of the terms of copyright law and might try to claim they're allowed to use your work - they probably aren't. It doesn't matter if they were profiting from the use of your work or not, copyright law protects the copyright owner from having their work 'copied'.

Note: This information is available on numerous websites [none of which are mine]. If source information is needed, I can provide however the best advice is to look for a site or resource which was written by a copyright attorney. A lot of people write their own opinions on what they think is or isn't ok when it comes to copyright, however the sites where an attorney is providing the information - it's based on actual copyright law.

Watermarking your handle is great because if big accounts repost your picture without tagging you, you'll still get followers. I've had celebs repost and had over 500 follows from it. However I should mention that if the graphic isn't actually yours (you didn't take it) and the owner sees your watermark on it, they could possibly file a copyright report... and these lead to account deletion. Just a heads up.

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They can file a copyright report even if you didn't put a watermark on it. If you post content to your own account that you don't own, the copyright owner can file a report. Even if the work is removed, they still have the right to file a suit for license fees for the time you [or someone posting with your watermark] had their work available.

It's OK to report content you don't own IF you get permission from the content owner [AND can verify they are the owner AND use the work exactly the way they gave you permission] OR if you purchase a license to use the work from a stock photography site, provided you are using the work within the terms of the license.

What about watermarking photos that aren't yours? i.e. images scraped off the internet? I've seen other accounts do this, I wont be saying it's my copyright or anything and if anyone has an issue I will just take it down.

In regards to destroying the content, that's why I think it's important to position the watermark where it won't obstruct the image, which may involve more manual work than batch processing.

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It is illegal to post content that isn't yours. Putting your name on content that isn't yours and posting it is even worse. Although it's not a valid defense & you may still may have to pay fees, you can easily try to claim you didn't know it wasn't OK to post someone else's work. If you put your name on their work, you give up the ability to make this claim AND have escalated the infringement to "Willful Copyright Infringement". You can end up being sued for additional damages.

IG will also be more likely to suspend your account after less reports if you're claiming work as your own than if you 'unknowingly' posted content you didn't own. Normally when I file DMCA claims, IG will pull the photo but they won't suspend the account until after a few reports have been filed. When I reported accounts for claiming my work as their own, it only took a single report to have the account suspended.

Instead of scraping the same sites for the same photos as everyone else, maybe ask someone who takes original photos if it's OK if you use their images. You can even ask them if it's OK to put your website name on the photos [and agree to provide them credit, link to their site from yours or pay them money]. Some people may not care. Others may want something in return. You can always ask. Then you don't have anything to worry about AND have unique original content.

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